This thread is designed to ask and answer any and all questions regarding Sefiras HaOmer. Please add your own inquiries below, and answer any previously asked questions that you might have an answer to.

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Can a person change from one year to the next year which 33 days (i.e. the first 33 or the last 33) he keeps for not listening to music/not shaving? If so, why is it not considered like a “minhug”, which generally a person is not supposed to change from his father’s/family established minhugim?

If you keep the first 33, can you listen to music on Chol HaMoed?

Who keeps all 49 days? (Minhug Arizal?)

If you forgot whether you said or missed a previous days Sefiras HaOmer count, can you continue counting with a brocha?

Can/must women count the Sefira with a brocha?

Until how late the next day can you still count last night’s Omer? (i.e. Tzeis Hakochovim?)

BY94: Many people keep either the first 33 days or the last 33 days. I’ve heard that some even change which (first or last) from year to year. The reason only 33 days is since Rabi Akiva’s talmidim were niftar over a 33 day period during the Omer.

Good point about Lag B’Omer. I think everyone, even those keeping the full 49 days, per the Arizal, listen to music and shave on Lag B’Omer.

I also have the minhag to keep ‘the whole sefira’ from Pesach to Shavuos from the arizal as do many nusach sefard people. The reasoning is simple. There are 33 days between Pesach and Shavuos to mourn on if you exclude days on which there is no aveilus such as yomtov, shabbos and rosh chodesh. Check it!

Shlishi thanks for starting this thread. When I lived in EY many years ago, I davened Neitz and I remember people counting Sefira at the Minion instead of during Marriv. Do other Posters count during Shacarit, and why then instead of at the end of Maaiv? My question is, is it a personal Minhag to count in the Morning?

Chabad chassidim do not take haircuts on Lag beOimer but we do listen to music – in fact we have big parades and public programs as per the Rebbe ZYA’s instructions. Eve of Lag beOimer – I think we do listen but I am really not sure. I tend to be too busy to care :). We most certainly listen to music on Chol HaMoied Pesach. We do take haircuts and listen to music during the shloisha ymei hagbolo before Shavuos and we have weddings on those days as well (just as we do on Lag beOimer). I think all Chassidim who “keep all 49 days” have similar minhagim.

Creedmoor is the exception. In Creedmoor, they count “bein hametzorim” – from Yom haAtzamois on 5 Iyar to Tisha be’Av. Instead of the 10 sefiros they use the Arba Misois Beis Din and other punishments to name the days. So, Yom haAtzamois is skila shebeskila and 9 Av is malkois shebemalkois or knas shebeknas (I forget which). [EDIT – it is actually Kooreys shebeKooreys and it is celebrated by schechting and grilling rubber duckies as a seudas hamafsekes.)

Chabad Chassidim do NOT take haircuts on any day of sefira, except erev Shavuos (and erev Shabbos which erev Shavuous is a Shabbos). This is based on the Arizal, since based on kabbalah, the days of sefiras haomer are likened to Chol Hamoed and are days of din. [Don’t ask; it’s a kabbalistic thing.] There are different customs regarding which days are the correct days, so if you want to act in a way that will satisfy all opinions, then you keep the whole sefira.
You may listen to music Chol Hamoed Pesach.
Women technically don’t have to count but many do (according to Sephardic and kabbalistic custom, women should not count).

Switching sefiras is a complicated question and should only be done in a case of dire need.

However, this is not so clear-cut nor unanimous. In fact, and although widely and seemingly erroneously quoted as holding that one may indeed switch between ‘First’ and ‘Second Sefirahs’ in different years[18], Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, actually qualified such action[19]. He clarifies that for Ashkenazim to be allowed to do so would depend on the difference of opinions between the Bach and Vilna Gaon as to the interpretation of the Rema’s ‘First Sefirah’. He explains that according to the Bach both minhagim are based on keeping 33 days; it technically should not matter which 33 days are kept. Accordingly, one may switch ‘Sefirahs’ in different years.

Yet, according to the Gr”a, the ‘First Sefirah’ is solely due to the Talmidim dying only then. If so, maintains Rav Moshe, how can one switch ‘Sefirahs’, if each is mutually exclusive, based on different accountings? If one holds that the Talmidim only died up until Lag B’Omer, how can he, in the very next year, follow a different minhag, which is based on a shittah that they did not actually die at that time, or vice versa? Therefore, he maintains that according to the Gr”a one may not switch ‘Sefirahs’ from year to year.

Additionally, Rav Moshe holds that the ‘Second Sefirah’ is the true Ashkenazic minhag and that ‘First Sefirah’ is essentially a Sefardic minhag[20]. He therefore concludes that an Ashkenazi may not switch from ‘Second Sefirah’ to the ‘First Sefirah’, as lechatchilla we should not be lenient against the shitta of the Gr”a, except under extremely extenuating circumstances’[21].”

Some Poskim (including Harav Moshe Feinstein Zatzal in Igros Moshe ibid.) maintain that in certain instances and with the guidance of a Rav, one may switch his/her “33 days” from year to year if necessary (hataras nedarim may be necessary in order to do this), while others are stringent and maintain that one must continually follow the same minhag each year. (See Michtavim U’ma’amarim from the Gaon Harav Elazar Menachem Mann Shach Zatzal vol. 6 page 71 for the reasoning why changing would not be permitted.)

This year, Shelosho Yemei Hagbolo are a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday:- Many barbers are closed on Sunday, and on Monday Memorial Day. Tuesday Erev Shovu’os, lines shall also be very long. I don’t want to take time off work just for waiting on line for a haircut, nor do I want to loose precious napping time for waiting on line, jeopardizing my awakeness during Shovu’os nite. Hence by necessity, this year I am observing 1st 33 days, albeit effectively, my hair & beard only being 31 days of growth this year.

Maybe they can implement the number system where people just take the next number out of the roll, wait no because the loud speaker may wake you.

On second thought, maybe they can give everyone waiting for a haircut one of those vibrating discs to inform you of when it’s your turn. Then they have a dorm next door with beds where you can nap until it’s your turn.

I know there is a chassidishe minhag to make a “hadlakah” and have live music (I don’t know the rationale for it), but I think even they agree to the basic ide of “miktzas yom k’kulo” not applying until the day.

Is that psak of Reb Moshe given above accurately represented? It seems like it hasn’t really gained any wide acceptance if so. The overwhelming majority of American Ashkenazim seem to keep first sfirah.

We listen to music only on chol hamoid and lag baomer.
No hair cutting at all except an upshernish on lag baomer.
Woman count sefira with a bracha.
(in english we keep the whole sefira. and i didint mention shabing because lubavitcher men dont shave at all)

Perhaps if you live in some minhag haGra stronghold. In the baalhabatish world, second sfira is unheard of from what I’ve seen. And, don’t bring proofs down from poskim; I’m talking about reality, not theory.